The New Zealand Bankers’ Association has welcomed the third reading of the Credit Contracts and Financial Services Law Reform Bill in Parliament last night.

Banks will have to be careful if the Reserve Bank removes restrictions on their high loan-to-value ratio (LVR) residential mortgage lending, says new BNZ CEO Anthony Healy, or the regulator may quickly reintroduce them.

The Commerce Commission says farmers concerned about the way their interest rate swaps were sold to them have until the end of the month to contact the regulator otherwise they may miss out on future compensation claims.

Anti-money laundering legislation, bank fees class action, and the Reserve Bank's restrictions on banks' high loan-to-value ratio (LVR) home loans are the reasons behind a decent chunk of the increasing number of bank customers turning to the Banking Ombudsman.